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b8e3b7159fc158d4a9aec8e6723b154c775ad2af - Matthew Ernisse - 1596901139
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diff --git a/users/mernisse/articles/07.gmi b/users/mernisse/articles/07.gmi new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9500b7c --- /dev/null +++ b/users/mernisse/articles/07.gmi @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +Title: I guess I just thought we were smarter than this +Date: 08/08/2020 11:38 + +I live in the United States. I am lucky in that my state has done a really +good job of managing the current pandemic but for a variety of reasons the +broader response in my country has been... ineffectual. In spite of polling +that shows that most of the country is in favor of social distancing and face +covering guidelines that provably prevent transmission of this disease +media outlets and politicians act like there is still a debate to be had, and +as a result comparatively small groups of people continue to behave in wildly +irresponsible ways, driving up infections and ultimately deaths. + +Most of the lip service is being paid to 'the economy'. I get that the economy +is a large, complex, and extremely interconnected thing but at the end of the +day the economy is a human construct. We made it up, we continue to re-make it +every few decades. The economic system in place in the US today is not the +same as it was when the country was founded, it isn't the same as it was when +Reagan was president, in lots of ways it is wildly different from when Clinton +was president and yet it is treated as this vaunted, immutable construct that +is out of our control. People point and wring their hands, bemoaning the +damage we are doing to it in terms of lost productivity and slipping +consumer confidence and I can't help but hear "I don't care how many people +die as long as I get paid." + +In fact I think that's the root of this general haze of frustration I have +been feeling lately. All of the stories I of people going to beaches, or large +unnecessary gatherings, or the social media 'influencers' throwing huge house +parties translate in my head to "I don't care who dies" and it disgusts me. +No one is holding people accountable for their selfish actions while we stack +corpses in refrigerated trucks before piling them in un-marked graves. People +complain they can't travel, complain about missing sports, complain about +'missing graduation', or wondering when schools will re-open in the midst of +literal thousands of people dying. A day. In this country alone. + +How are we not better than this? How are we not smarter than this? How is the +narrative not 'lets rally together to defeat this disease', 'lets protect +each other', 'lets support each other'?